Ultimatum
by Jessica Charlotte
Summary: Spike is the Master's favorite right hand man. He just got his next assignment. Will he become too emotionally attached to his prey, or will he be able to finish the job?
1. Chapter One

Ultimatum  
  
Jessica Charlotte  
  
Story: Spike was the Master's favorite right hand man. He was reveling in the fame and the benefits of being in his position. Other vampires and demons feared him. The Master cared for him as a father would a son. Then Buffy moved to Sunnydale. Will Spike be able to carry out the Master's wish again?  
  
Spoilers: none in particular...in any case, Angel hasn't showed. Rough season 1.  
  
Disclaimer: You know the drill. I know and own no one but myself and this story. Characters all belong to others. Please don't sue.  
  
A/N: yes. I know that I have way to many stories going at once. But this story was calling to me, so here it is.  
  
Chapter One:  
  
He always loved the projects he was assigned. He wasn't given any of the pansy boohoo busy work. No he was given the biggest battles. The fun stuff. Like killing people. That was pretty damn fun, if you asked him. There is no question that Spike loved his job as the Master's right hand man. Others were jealous and feared him. The Master liked him. He was kept in a large supply of fresh blood, and was generally allowed to do what he pleased, unlike most of the vampires working under the Master.  
  
He was standing in a club designed to appeal to the eye of a teenager. Dim lighting, cushiony chairs and couches, a bar. But he wasn't paying a lot of attention to that. He had a new assignment. Buffy Anne Summers. She would make the third slayer that he bagged. It wasn't hard to distinguish her from the other girls in the club. Her power-tinged blood hummed around him. But she was different from the other slayers he met. There was an air of innocence that he hadn't seen in a slayer before. By the time he was even on the same continent as one, they already had a death wish. She was oddly refreshing.  
  
But she could wait for a few minutes. He was hungry. He scanned the club for a cute, ditzy looking girl. They made rather good snacks.  
  
"Hello salty goodness," came a feminine voice from behind him. He turned around to see an attractive brunette looking him up and down. "A little on the gothic side, but those cheekbones make up for it."  
  
He curled his tongue behind his teeth in a sexy smirk. "And who might you be, love?"  
  
She held out her well-manicured hand, "Cordelia Chase. And you?"  
  
"M' name's Spike."  
  
"Interesting," her gaze shot to his crotch before sliding up his chest to once again meet his eyes. "I wonder how you got that name."  
  
Buffy froze on the dance floor, the hair on the back of her neck standing up. Her senses alert, she continued dancing, her eyes scanning the room.  
  
"What's up, Buff?" Xander asked. "Is the ole Spidey sense tingling?"  
  
"Huh?" Buffy asked distractedly. "Oh, yeah. I can't quite figure out where he is. I'll be back."  
  
She left her friends and weaved her way off of the dance floor. She walked towards the bathrooms, and paused before the door, frowning as the tingles dimmed. Whirling around, she walked back out into the main space, this time heading towards the bar.  
  
"Bingo," she murmured, her eyes zeroing in on the vampire. An 80's reject whose outfit screamed Billy Idol wannabe. He was sitting at a table, chatting up a girl...who just happened to be Cordelia. Great. This should be fun.  
  
A look of determination crossed her face and she started walking towards the table.  
  
"So, Spike," Cordelia said. "Tell me about yourself."  
  
"Well, pet, not much to tell. I'm into traveling. Don't stay in the same spot for long."  
  
What brings you to Sunnydale?" she curled a strand of hair around her finger and tilted her head to the side provocatively.  
  
He stared at her neck, his senses honing in on the sound of her blood pumping beneath her skin. "Buissness."  
  
Her eyebrows raised in approval. "Buissness? Very classy. What field of work are you in?"  
  
"Oh you know, the usual. Body guards, bounty hunting, researching the paranormal, stuff like that."  
  
Her blinding smile dimmed and she quickly lost interest. "Oh, well, you've come to the right town then. This is psycho town U.S.A." She paused, "Oh! You know who you could talk to? There's this girl in my class who just transferred here this year. Very creepy. Like, when I first met her, she pinned me to the wall and held a piece of wood to my chest. I mean, geez, what bug crawled up her butt? But seriously, she's very weird, and she's always around when the weird stuff happens too."  
  
Spike leaned forward in his seat and propped his elbows on the table, clasping his hands together. Leaning toward her, he murmured in a hypnotic, seductive voice, "Do you happen to know where I could find this bird, love? She sounds like a very interesting person, and perhaps would be very helpful."  
  
"Who knows where she disappears to at night? Wouldn't surprise me if you found her lurking about in a graveyard. Oh, wait a minute, here she comes now."  
  
Spike grinned wickedly, keeping his gaze on Cordelia as she rambled on about bloody nonsense, feeling the Slayer approach. He sat up once she stopped at the table. His gaze hotly skimmed Buffy, and she could feel herself blush under his intense stare.  
  
"Oh hi, Buffy," Cordelia started in a plastic voice. "We were just talking about you."  
  
"Oh really?" Buffy responded, her eyebrows quirking in response.  
  
"Yeah, I was just informing Spike here of what a freak you are."  
  
Buffy rolled her eyes before looking at Spike more closely, taking note of the battle scar marring his eyebrow.  
  
"Well, there's things to be said about the man who studies every angle of his subject," he said in a sultry tone.  
  
"So I'm your subject now?" Why did the thought cause butterflies to flutter in her stomach. Bad, bad Buffy!  
  
He laughed, "I was simply making a point. But if you're offering, I'm sure I could teach you a couple of things, love."  
  
The innuendo echoed in her mind, and she blushed further. Damn it Buffy! Get it together. One word: Vampire. So quit it with the flirting already. She tilted her head back slightly, so she was looking down on him. "Right, I'm sure you could," she said sarcastically. "Spike was it?" after he nodded she continued, "Well, Spike, I'm pretty sure that I already know about everything you're thinking of."  
  
A genuine smile crossed his face, and his eyes twinkled with mischevious mirth. There's a difference between knowing about something, and experiencing it first hand. The rush of adrenaline, the confidence, the hunger, the fight. Can you really say that you've intimately experienced that?"  
  
Her heartbeat sped up and her mouth suddenly felt very dry, her mind providing images only fit for a porn flick. A very, very good porn flick. "Maybe you'd be up for a," she paused and licked her lips, "Demonstration some time."  
  
He laughed richly, before cocking his head to the side and looking at her hungrily. "With you? Anytime, love. Just name the time and place."  
  
Her flirtatious gaze turned into a cold business stare. "Alley out back. Five minutes." They shared a knowing look before she turned around and disappeared behind throngs of sweaty people.  
  
"God, what a ho-bag!" Cordelia screeched. "Wait until the girls hear about this."  
  
"No," Spike said. He narrowed his eyes at her, until she was looking dazedly back at him. "There will be no nonsense gossiping with the girls from now on about that girl. You understand?" She nodded compliantly and he relaxed, releasing her from his thrall. "Thanks for the tip about her, she's a firecracker."  
  
Cordelia rolled her eyes, "I'd say more of a nutcase, but apparently some people dig psychopaths."  
  
He just looked at her. "Right. See you later, ducks. Gotta go see a girl."  
  
TBC.... 


	2. Chapter Two

Ultimatum  
  
Jessica Charlotte  
  
A/N: thanks for the reviews. I'm posting chapters two and three because they were generally quite a bit shorter than the first, so more Spuffyness for all!  
  
Chapter Two:  
  
Buffy walked into the alleyway, her heeled boots clicking loudly on the cement with each step she took. Her hand rested on her hip, feeling the stake tucked into the waistband of her pants. She glanced at her watch. There were two minutes left until he was supposed to show. Spike. He had to have been the sexiest vampire she had ever seen in her life. Out of all the vampires she had met, he was the only one who she has had a conversation with. And god was he attractive! The muscle tone clearly visible beneath his tight t-shirt. The deep, penetrating eyes and their color. I think I might change my favorite color from green to blue because of those eyes, she mused. And his accent. I thought all British people were stuffy and bookish like Giles. I never thought that a British accent could sound that sensual. "Ugh!" she groaned in annoyance. Bad, bad Buffy. He is the enemy. I'm supposed to want to slay him, not lay him. Annoying sexy British vampire. She whimpered pathetically. How can anything that attractive not be evil?  
  
So involved in her thoughts, she didn't feel or hear the vampire sneak up on her, until its arm was wrapped around her neck from behind in a chokehold. She made a strangled "eep" of surprise, flailing helplessly, struggling to get out of the vampire's grasp. Her face was turning a nice shade of blue when the weight was released from her neck. She fell against the alley wall, gasping in air, so happy to breathe that she didn't acknowledge her savior.  
  
When her breathing had almost returned to normal, she chanced a glance up and saw a smirking Spike leaning against the wall a few feet away from her. She could have sworn that when she first met his stare, concern glimmered in his eyes. But that might have just been the lack of air talking. She looked at her watch before saying, "You're early."  
  
His smirk widened into a grin, "What can I say? Couldn't wait." There was an awkward silence before he continued, "Bloody good thing too. Any longer you would have been dead right about now."  
  
Insulted, she growled, "I was doing just fine."  
  
His eyebrows shot up and he snorted disbelievingly. "Right. You weren't flailing about like a bloody fish out of water or anything like that."  
  
"Of course not! If you walked up on time, you would have seen me dusting that vamp's dust off of my clothes."  
  
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, love."  
  
"Okay then!"  
  
"Good!"  
  
"Good!"  
  
"Fine!"  
  
They looked away from each other for a few moments before she glanced over at him from the corner of her eye. He had his arms crossed over his chest and his cheeks were sucked in, his lips puckered into a pout. The corners of her mouth twitched, and she tried to control herself. She couldn't, and she started laughing.  
  
"What is it now?" he demanded in faux annoyance.  
  
"You!" guffaw, "You're," guffaw," Pouting!" she was set off into a laughing fit so extreme that tears streamed out of her eyes.  
  
"I am bloody well not pouting! Take it back!" he whined.  
  
She shook her head, holding her sides as the laughing continued. "Never!"  
  
He stormed up to her until he was standing toe to toe with her. He looked her straight in the eye and said in a menacing tone. "I'll have you know that vampires do not pout."  
  
The word vampire cut her laughter short, and she straightened up solemnly. "If you weren't pouting, then what exactly were you doing? Sulking?"  
  
An offended/shocked look plastered itself to his face. "Sulking!" he sputtered in outrage. I am not a bleeding sulker. I'm not bloody Peaches you know!"  
  
"Peaches sulk? I didn't know that."  
  
"Not the fruit, love. A person."  
  
"What mother hated their child enough to name their child Peaches?" her nose crinkled in distaste.  
  
"It's a bloody nickname. He prefers the term Angelus though."  
  
"Angelus? Am I supposed to know who the hell you are talking about?"  
  
"You mean, he hasn't introduced himself yet? Not too surprising, if you aske me. He's more the stalking type. He should be in your little slayer handbook."  
  
"There's a handbook?" she screeched, before adopting a nonchalant look. "Oh, that handbook. I guess this Angelus wasn't special enough to make the cut."  
  
Spike reflected on his grand-sire for a moment. "No, he is more than special enough. But he knows better than to mess in the Master's business."  
  
"The Master?" Buffy's attention was piqued.  
  
"Oh bloody hell!" Spike growled, smacking himself in the head. He turned around and stalked out of the alleyway, grumbling to himself all the way. 


End file.
